Marketing Your Business through the Use of Podcasts

I’m an English major. I love to read. I consume a ton of media – business books, fiction, articles, blog posts, tweet streams, e-Books, pretty much anything I can get my hands on. So the idea that video and audio work as marketing tools better than the written word scared me. I don’t watch many online videos. I don’t listen to many podcasts. So the rest of the world must not either . . . right?

Wrong!

About two months ago, I started doing video blogs, just to see what all the ruckus was about. Turns out, our blog traffic quadruples when we post a video. So I stopped being cynical and began podcasting, too. (You can hear my podcasts at InsidePR, where Martin Waxman, Joe Thornley, and I wax poetic about how the web is changing the PR industry.)

The audience for podcasts is growing . . . and it is set to explode. eMarketer projects growth will continue through at least 2013, when there will be 37.6 million people downloading podcasts on a monthly basis. This is more than double the 2008 figure of 17.4 million.

People learn in different ways. Some people (like me) like to read. Some are visual and want to watch videos. But we all like to listen, which is why podcasts are becoming so popular. I mean, how cool is it that you can exercise, drive to work, or whatever else you want to do and learn while you listen to a podcast?

Want to try creating your own podcast? Follow these steps:

1. Choose your topic – make sure it’s one that has longevity, meaning you can speak on the topic weekly for a long period of time.

2. Download Audacity or other audio editing tool.

3. If you’re on a Mac, upgrade to QuickTime Pro. If you’re on a PC, buy a podcasting microphone.

8. Upload the podcast to iTunes, your website, your blog, your newsletter, and to all of your social networks.

9. Then submit your podcast to ibizradio or another podcast directory.

Soon you will have an audience of people who really love what you have to say, will subscribe, and will help promote you in ways you never thought possible. And you got all of them with a tool that you recorded in 20 minutes or less.

I like the way you think!! I love podcasts, however, have not given it a try, yet!!

I'm with you as far as reading a blog, rather than listening...something about words on a page. I even love holding a book...must make me tactile.

The advantages of podcasts are HUGE and friends are always sending me something to watch. Soooo...I'll check out your friend Peter Mello's, "So You Want to be a podstar" site for further information. Who knows what will happen. :=)

I love doing our Social Geek Radio podcast. We have an outline for each show which is very helpful but I will admit that we are easily steered in a different direction. It's amazing how many new fans and listeners we have since the podcast can be downloaded from iTunes and played when it is convenient.

We've been running a regular podzine for over a year now and I agree with much of what Gini has to say about podcasting, however, we tend to run 40-45 minutes (we polled our target business audience about length of commutes etc.) I'm still a bit sceptical about video due to badwidth issues, the reduction in audio fidelity you get from using youtube etc. and the fact that whilst it convenient and comfortable to listen to spoken word, watching it as well can cause motion sickness problems whilst travelling, good quality video is also a lot more difficult and expensive to record/edit. We have started a podcasting (audio) guide at our blog - Microsperience and would be happy to get feedback, comments suggestions. The one take home from Gini's article for me though, is that audio is an ever increasing medium - when we had the idea to present this kind of material as audio nearly 2 years ago, the listen base was nothing like as large as it is today. D

Good advice all. I would suggest for V-Blogs that 2-4 mins is optimal. One of my teams produces a written product (one page with links) and then a V-Blog which expands on the written product with visuals). Satisfies both the executive who wants the data quick and the executive who wants the data with depth.